Illuminated advertising apparatus.



m. 715159, Patented Dec. 2, I902.

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ILLUHINATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

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No. 715,159.. Patented Dec. 2, I902. w. SCHELL, la. y

lLLUIMNATED ADVERTISING APPARATUS.

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XVIIJHELM SCIIELL, JR., OF OFFENBURG, GERMANY.

lLLUMlNATED ADVERTiSING APPARATUS.

EPEGEFIGATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 71 5,159, dated De emb 2, 1902.

Application filed October 29,1900- Serial No. 34,713. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILHELM ScnELL, J r., manufacturer, i Glasplacatefabrik Oti'enburg, a subject of the Grand Duke of Baden, and a resident of Offenburg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Empire of Germany, have invented new and useful Improvements in Illuminated Advert-isingApparat us, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to transparent advertising-tablets made of glass, celluloid, pa per, or the like, in combination withany preferred apparatus for darkening and relighting up pictorial or printed advertising representations or making them visible from time to time. In connection therewith itis immaterial whether the printed or pictorial representations are actually depicted on the tablet! or have to be projected onto it. In the first case there is an apparatus which temporarily covers or darkens the representations. In the second case-an apparatus is arranged behind the tablet for temporarily bringing forward or rendering visible printed or pictorial representations. With this invention it is thus essential that in order to bring the said representations onto a transparent tablet it should be connected with some mechanism, either clockwork or electric motor, where- With the apparatus for rendering the representations visible and invisible is automatically actuated, as distinguished from the lettered tablets composed of electric incandescent lamps in which the effect of the alternating representations is obtained by their own light.

In the accompanying drawings several forms of the invention are shown by way of 'example.

Figure 1 is a transverse, section of an apparatus in which the obscuration and exposure of printed or pictorial representalions on the tablet are effected by means of a shutteroperating mechanism. Fig. 2 is a horizontal longitudinal section of an apparatus as shown in Fig. 1. Figs. 3 and 4 are respectively a side View and a front view of the shutter-op crating mechanism; Fig. 5 is a transverse section of an apparatus in which a magic lantern of any preferred construction is arranged for the purpose of alternately pro-- senting pictorial or printed representations.

Fig. 6 is a horizontal longitudinal section of the apparatus as shownin Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a front view of the apparatus as shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 8 is a diagrammatic representation'ot' the mechanism for moving the picture-disk. Fig. 9 represents an apparatusin combination with a kinematograph of any preferred construction for presenting moving representations.

In all the forms the advertising apparatus consists of a wood or iron casing 1, in one side of which the transparenttablet 3, which is in a frame 2 of any preferred kind, is inserted. This tablet is non-transparent up to the necessary surfaces for the pictorial or printed representations. The casing 1 is, morever, divided into two parts by a frosted glass plate 4. In the space behind the plate 4 is the illuminating apparatus 5, which may be of any kind, as preferred. In the space between the advertisen'ient-tablet 3 and the frosted glass plate 4 are arranged the apparatus which cause representations to be illuminated or made visible from time to time on the tablet 3. In all modifications some mechanical arrangeuncut-clockwork 6, for eXample-is suitably seated in the casing 1.

In the apparatus illustrated in Figs. 1 to at printed or pictorial representations appear direct on the tablet 3. These representations are exposed and obscured from time to time by means of a shutter-operating apparatus. This temporary illumination or exposure of the tablet is ett'ected as follows: The letters of theword on the tablet, for example, are lighted up singly, and after all the letters have been lighted up the whole word is again concealed. The covering apparatus is operated from shaft '7, driven by the clockwork G. v On the shaft 7 are a number of disks 8, which are connected by rods 9 11 with anumber of rotating shutters 10, arranged behind the tablet 3 and corresponding to the printing of the tablet. The rods for opening and closing the shutters are each bent, as shown, to form two upright members or arms connected bya horizontal member. On the one arm 9 are the shutters 10. In other Words, this arm lies against the shutters, While the horizontal part 11 is mounted to rotate on the bottom of the casing. The arm let runs along the face of the disk 8 near the periphery and is forced against the disk by a fiat spring 15, which bears on a head in the part 11. The disks 8 are furnished with recesses 16. If thus the arm 14 meets a recess 16 of the disk 8 when the disk is rotated, the spring 15 turns the part 11 so that the arm 9 swings forward and the shutter 10 comes against the tablet and covers the particular letter. When the recess 16 has passed arm 14, the disk 8 presses the arm back again, so that the shutter 10 swings back. The arm 14 slides on the disk until it again reaches the recess. In

order that the shutters may open one after the other, so that the picture or word may be gradually exposed or illuminated and close all together when the exposure is completed, the recesses 16 of the disks 8 are of different lengths and the disks attached to the shaft in such a manner that the starting-points a: of the recesses 16 all lie in the same line. Thus all hooks l4 engage in the recesses at the same time, and consequently all shutters close together, while, on the other hand, the

recesses are of different'lengths, so that the ends y, which are always opposite to the direction of rotation of the shaft 7, operate on the arms at different times. Thus the arms 14 are pressed back in rotation, and consequently the shutters opened in a similar manner. As a matter of course instead of the picture or writing on the tablet 3 the frosted plate 4 or the source of light 5 can be partially or entirely coveredin other words, obscured and lighted up again by means of shutters operated by the clockwork 6.

In the forms of the invention shown in Figs. 5 to 9 the tablet 3, as Fig. 7 shows,is furnished with a special translucent surface 19, on which the pictorial representations appear. The remainder of the tablet is fur nished with any desired advertising matter or with text suited to the pictorial representations and which also can be temporarily lighted up and obscured by mechanism ill-ustrated in Figs. 1 to 4. For presenting the pictures a magic lantern 20 of any preferred construction is used in connection with the form of the invention shown in Figs. 5 to 8. On the casing an upright 21, with pivot 22, is arranged, on which the picture-disk 23 is placed. The pictures can also be interchanged as desired or according to requirement. The disks 23 are furnished with small pins 24, by means of which they can be rotated by a pin 26, mounted on an adjoining shaft 25, the pins of the disks 23 and of the shaft 25 engaging with one another. (See Fig. 8.) The driving of the shaft 25 is effected by the clockwork 6. On the disk 23 are several different illustrations 27, which are brought before the lens of the magic lantern by the rotation of the shaft 25, and thereby caused to appear on the surface of the advertising-tablet, the pictures not appearing in direct succession, but, for example, a picture appears, then the surface 19 is obscured, and thereupon another picture appears, and so on. The pictures can of course be presented in any manner. They may follow in uninterrupted succession and may be of any preferred kind, moving, the. In the form shown in Fig. 9 so-called animated pictures are brought onto the free surface 19 of the tablet 3 by one of the known apparatus-for example, by a kinematograph 28 of any preferred construction which is operated by the clockwork 6 through the medium of a cord or the like 29. The apparatus can be arranged for glass as well as for film pictures and the presentation of the representations be effected as desired or according to requirements. In operation the concentration of the more intense light from the magic lantern on the central disk 19 of the screen causes the special and changing representations thereon to be distinctly visible notwithstanding the more subdued and less intense light from the illuminant 5 in the rear chamber, which is diffused throughout the front chamber through the medium of the ground-glass partition 4. By these means the text or representations on the marginal part 3 of the screen and the changing representations made by the intense light of the magic lantern on the central disk 19 are made visible at one and the same time.

I claim 1. An illuminated advertising apparatus constructed with a transparentscreen in front and with front and rear chambers and a translucent partition separating said chambers and capable of transmitting difiused light from the rear chamber to the front; a source of light in the rear chamber from which the front screen is illuminated and advertising devices thereon displayed; and means in'the front chamber for producing changeable representations on a portion of the front screen.

2. The combination of the closed case 1; a transparent tablet 3 in the front of the case; the ground-glass plate 4 dividing the interior of the case into front and rear compartments and permitting the passage of diffused light from one to the other; an illuminating device 5 in the rear compartment; and mechanism in the front compartment consisting of a shaft 7 parallel with the tablet 3, disks 8 carried by said shaft and having recesses 16, levers 9 mounted on rock-shafts 11, shutters 10 operated by said levers, arms 14 on the rockshafts actuated by the disk-recesses 16, and a clockwork-motor 6 driving the shaft 7, so as to open the shutters 10 one after another and successively expose a series of represen tations on the tablet 3, as explained.

\VILI-IELM SOHELL, J R.

WVitnesses:

L. BENZ,

MAX ADLER. 

